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Meet KEPCO: South Korea’s largest energy company. It generates almost all its power from coal and gas. And in the last few years has built coal mines in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. With stories of land grabbing, polluted fishing waters and devious silencing of protestors.

You may find yourself asking, how do polluting companies like KEPCO find hundreds of billions of dollars during a climate crisis to build new coal plants? The team’s worked with top researchers to uncover that some of the biggest financiers of KEPCO’s coal expansion are:

* US pension fund for teachers, professors and charity workers TIAA
* US investment giant PIMCO, which buys bonds for most of the world’s pension funds
* UK investment company abrdn

We cannot wait for politicians to save the planet or for investors to act without pressure. We have to use our power now.

KEPCO is uniquely reliant on toxic bonds to fund its dirty coal habits. If we push some of the world's most influential investors to stop buying these bonds it will give KEPCO no choice but to speed up the transition to clean energy.

[So will you join our campaign and call on Thasunda Brown Duckett CEO of TIAA, Emmanuel Roman CEO of PIMCO and Stephen Bird, CEO of Abrdn to stop buying KEPCO bonds?](https://actions.sumofus.org/a/deny-debt-to-kepco)

If we push some of the world's most influential investors TIAA, abrdn and PIMCO to stop buying KEPCO´s bonds it will give them no choice but to speed up the transition to clean energy.

KEPCO needs bonds to keep expanding coal and gas. Investors could stop them.

**You have already heard about the Carmichael mine, but shocking new analysis shows that Adani has plans for 16 other coal mines across the Asia-Pacific region.**

To finance these mines Adani needs to persuade investors that it's committed to a green transition. It will try to do so at its annual shareholder meeting, which the date is expected to be called any day now. The Adani Group is going into a greenwash overdrive.

**The AGM is a rare chance to expose Adani's blatant lies and shine a spotlight on all the banks and investors helping Adani to build the new coal mines.** 

**[Will you sign the petition demanding investors like Blackrock CEO- Larry Fink, Vanguard CEO- Mortimer J. Buckley, Pimco CEO- Emmanuel Roman step away from any involvement with the Adani Group?](https://actions.sumofus.org/pages/banks-and-investors-get-out-of-adani/)**

**CEO Gautam Adani is already the fifth richest person in the world. And yet is seeking finance from US and European banks and investors to grow his vast wealth, by building more planet-wrecking coal mines.**

Just last week the streets of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo were alive with protestors against Adani’s illegal and corrupt dealmaking.

*"Naturally we want a sustainable solution to the current energy crisis in Sri Lanka. However, in the current situation, it is vital that we do not let any corruption go unchecked. Adani is a company known for dubious practices. Sri Lanka deserves better."* – Serena Burgess, protesting mother

Adani has huge plans to expand coal mines across Asia-Pacific. **But it’s not just carbon emissions that should be cause for concern for investors: it has a horrific track record of violence, exploitation, corruption, land-grabbing - the list goes on.**

There are incredible stories of courage and resistance standing up against this company that has torn up ancestral lands of the Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners in Australia, to the Indigenous Adivasi communities in India.

But it’s happening in places far from where the deals are being made by CEOs and business people from Wall Street, to the City of London. **The likes of Blackrock CEO- Larry Fink, Vanguard CEO- Mortimer J. Buckley, Pimco CEO- Emmanuel Roman would rather we stay quiet about it.**

People-power recently forced Deutsche Bank to pull out of financing the Whitehaven coal mine, due to public pressure from our friends at Market Forces and SumOfUs members. It can be done again. 

**[Will you sign the petition demanding all investors pull out of Adani deals?](https://actions.sumofus.org/pages/banks-and-investors-get-out-of-adani/)**

**It’s also time we escalate to the top dogs: the CEOs and Directors of the biggest banks and investors who are financing Adani’s catastrophic coal expansion.** 

**[So will you please also take 5 minutes to send a pre-written letter to the CEOs of Blackrock, Vanguard and PIMCO, telling them to stick by their words and get out of Adani?](https://actions.sumofus.org/a/divest-from-adani/?ak_proof=1&akid=.11638641.pkyc60&rd=1&source=fwd&t=9)**

Adani's on a coal mine expansion rampage, with 17 coal mines in the Asia-Pacific region. It will spell certain climate catastrophe. Tell banks, investors, asset managers and pension fund managers to stop financing and supporting Adani. 

 SumOfUs calls on Banks and Investors: Get Out of Adani

What does an airport in Mumbai and a coal mine in Australia have in common?



Both are owned by coal baron Gautam Adani and right now he’s trying to issue a massive $1bn bond for his airport. An airport may seem harmless but if he secures this cash it could free up his finances to finish the reef-destroying Carmichael coal mine.



That is, unless you can tell investors like Blackrock to walk away from the deal. And if Blackrock walks away other investors will follow.



People power has already prevented Adani from securing any external financing for his notorious Carmichael coal mine; over 100 companies have ruled out financing or working on the project.

This has forced Adani to transfer billions from other parts of his company to finish the mine. But Adani is getting close and with a cash injection from one of his other subsidiaries, he could start shipping coal over the Great Barrier Reef in a matter of weeks.



This is the first time Adani Enterprises have issued their bonds in US dollars, which means it’s a critical moment for Gautam Adani. Imagine the incredible impact it will have if you and thousands of others force their biggest investor, Blackrock, to wash their hands of Adani.



[➔ SumOfUs is calling on investors to boycott Adani's bonds and say no to coal- add your voice to the call now!](https://actions.sumofus.org/a/adani-bonds-for-coal)

Coal baron Gautam Adani is trying to issue a massive $1bn bond for his airport. The money raised will free up his finances to finish the reef-destroying Carmichael coal mine.

SumOfUs calls on Blackrock to boycott Adani bonds

French oil and gas giant Total is getting set to sell a cunning plan to investors: to use Sustainability-Linked Bonds to fund its efforts to drill the Arctic.



Investors increasingly are demanding action on climate. But by 2030, 80% of Total's investments will still be directed to fossil fuels. Which is why Total came up with this plan: call the investments ‘sustainable’ - but use them to fund oil and gas expansion.



It's greenwash. But it also sets a dangerous precedent: if Total can use sustainable finance to build massive oil pipelines through East Africa and [drill the Arctic](https://totalenergies.com/media/news/press-releases/russia-total-signs-definitive-agreements-entry-arctic-lng-2) wilderness, then so too can any other company.



Total says that its Sustainability-Linked Bonds will support its climate plans. But one look at those plans shows [how hollow this claim is](https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2021/09/28/totalenergies-sustainable-debt-investor-trap/). What’s more, Total is not obligated to spend any of the money it raises through its sustainability bonds for green projects: it can pump it [straight into new oil and gas projects](https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/sustainability-linked-bonds-in-rapid-growth-as-more-firms-tap-esg-debt-market-65049789).



[➔ SumOfUs is calling on investors to boycott Total's Sustainability-Linked Bonds - add your voice to the call now!](https://actions.sumofus.org/a/total-greenwash?source=campaigns)

SumOfUs calls on investors to boycott Total’s Sustainability-Linked Bonds. Sustainable finance should not be used to fund fossil fuel expansion.

Total greenwash: tell investors not to buy Total's Toxic Bonds

Deutsche Bank is publicly committed to “phase out coal exposure by 2025 worldwide.”

**But in the meanwhile is helping [Australian coal miner Whitehaven](https://www.marketforces.org.au/deutsche-bank-whitehaven/) to secure debt finance for three new coal mines. When emissions from digging up and burning the coal are added over their lifetimes, these three mines would unleash almost 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon emissions, the equivalent of almost twice Australia’s annual emissions.**

Whitehaven flagged a potential move away from reliance on major banks and towards the bond market as a source of finance for its climate-wrecking coal. To access this new market for debt it needs Deutsche Bank.

[Take action now: email Deutsche Bank and call on the bank to confirm publicly that it will take no further part in arranging finance for Whitehaven, or other companies expanding the coal industry.](https://actions.sumofus.org/a/email-deutsche-bank)



[➔ Or find out more at Market Forces](https://www.marketforces.org.au/deutsche-bank-whitehaven/)

SumOfUs and Market Forces call on Deutsche Bank to take no further part in arranging finance for Whitehaven, or other companies expanding the coal industry.

Deutsche Bank: don't raise debt for Whitehaven

JBS is Brazil’s largest cattle company, and its activities have been tied to deforestation, habitat destruction and climate change. In spite of this, last year the meat giant JBS issued a [billion-dollar Sustainability-Linked](https://jbsfoodsgroup.com/articles/jbs-usa-announces-successful-issuance-of-sustainability-linked-bond) bond.



Mighty Earth released its [newest analysis of deforestation data](https://www.mightyearth.org/2021/04/28/mighty-earths-new-monitoring-data-reveals-deforestation-connected-to-soy-trader-and-meatpackers-in-brazil-more-than-doubled-over-two-year-period/), which found that JBS was the worst-scoring meat packer and company overall. It has been linked to 100,000 hectares of clearance in the past two years – an area larger than all of Berlin. 75% of this clearance occurred in protected areas, making it potentially illegal under Brazilian law.



“Any investor that buys JBS’s sustainable bond will be complicit in the forest destruction and displacement of Indigenous communities they drive. This bond is probably the greatest bastardization of the term ‘sustainability’ in financial history, and that’s saying something. JBS remains a company that continues to sell meat linked to deforestation, even though there are more than a billion acres of land where deforestation-free agricultural production is possible. They could choose to be a leader in the global transition to a deforestation-free future, but instead they’ve chosen to conduct sustainability by press release” said Mighty Earth CEO and Founder Glenn Hurowitz.



[➔ Find out more](https://www.mightyearth.org/2021/12/01/media-release-jbs-sets-dubious-record-with-sustainable-bond/)

Mighty Earth calls on investors to boycott JBS’s Sustainability-Linked Bonds over concerns for forest destruction and displacement of Indigenous communities.

Calling out JBS's Sustainability-Linked Bond

Hong Kong Airport Authority is attempting to finance a third runway at the city’s international airport through green bonds. The project raises serious climate- and biodiversity- related risks, especially for the threatened Chinese White Dolphin. 

Beyond the issue of classifying part of the project as green, the participation of 11 banks that are members of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance raises doubt on the credibility of their climate pledges and on how they intend to meet a net zero target while supporting air traffic growth. These banks are ANZ, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Credit Suisse, HSBC, J.P. Morgan Chase, Mizuho, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered and UBS. 

“The issuance of a green bond for such a devastating project might have been cleared for takeoff but the biodiversity and climate risks associated with the project speak for themselves: labeling this project as green is pure high-flying greenwashing. Sincere investors should stay clear of this bond, if their climate commitments mean anything at all” states [Lucie Pinson, director of Reclaim Finance](https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2022/01/04/high-flying-greenwashing-around-a-new-green-bond/#:~:text=Reclaim%20Finance%20denounces%20the%20banks,completed%20in%202024%20(3)).

[➔ Join Reclaim Finance in denouncing the banks’ participation and amplify its call on investors to not participate in the deal to avoid greenwashing and reputational risks.](https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2022/01/04/high-flying-greenwashing-around-a-new-green-bond/)

Reclaim Finance tells banks that investing in Hong Kong Airport Authority’s green bonds for a new runway is blatant greenwashing.

High-flying greenwash: a new green bond for Hong Kong Airport

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) launched its [Global-Dollar bonds](https://www.jica.go.jp/english/news/press/2021/20210430_30.html) guaranteed by the Japanese government and stated they would “not knowingly allocate any proceeds from the sale of the bonds to activities related to coal-fired power generation.” After coming under pressure from civil society who’d written to them to rule out support for the Matarbari coal-fired power plant project in Bangladesh and Indramayu coal-fired power plant project in Indonesia. 

However despite their promises they’ve been manipulating inter company loans to fund the coal projects in Bangladesh and Indonesia. JICA’s continued support for these two projects is [undermining Bangladesh and Indonesia’s efforts to transition](https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/indonesia-says-no-new-coal-plants-from-2023-after-the-next-100-or-so/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1v9nsyna52Hjt3HkIl9KbijEh0qRn1qJQ7NnHJeZ5bFU9h3uNMMjqs38g#Echobox=1620825089) to clean energy. And goes against the Japanese Government’s own Sustainable Development Goals, as well as [G7 2021 commitments](https://www.g7uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Carbis-Bay-G7-Summit-Communique-PDF-430KB-25-pages-3-1.pdf) to end government support for unabated international thermal coal power generation.

In March 2021, 29 organizations from 12 countries submitted a [letter](http://jacses.org/en/228/) to 39 Bond Underwriters and Bondholders of JICA, requesting them to urge JICA for cessation of financing for both projects. Four financial institutions responded saying that they had engaged or were planning to engage with JICA and bond index providers.

In fact, between February 2021 and February 2022, nine financial institutions were confirmed to have reduced their JICA bonds or have divested. On the other hand, 19 financial institutions increased their JICA bonds.

In March 2022, JACSES and the other organizations submitted a letter to these 19 financial institutions asking them to divest. 

[➔ Join these organizations in asking your financial institutions to respond to the organizations’ questions, the responses of which will be published on the JACSES’s website](http://jacses.org/en/321/)

*The photograph was provided by JACSES in Tokyo Japan.*

29 organizations, including JACSES, demand that the Japanese Government rule out support for coal-fired power plant projects in Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Bondholders challenged JICA to Stop Supporting Coal Projects

Standard Chartered’s 2022 Annual Report, released on February 17, 2022, sees the bank continue to defy the urgency of climate change as it faces a shareholder challenge at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May. 



[A Market Forces briefing, sent to the bank’s investors recently](https://marketforces.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2022-02-16-Standard-Chartered-investor-briefing.pdf), demonstrates how Standard Chartered’s climate policy does not apply to debt capital market activity. In 2020, 53% of Standard Chartered’s financing for fossil fuels was through the underwriting of bonds, meaning around half of the bank’s 2020 fossil fuel financing is not covered by their climate policy at all. 



For the financing that is covered, loopholes in the policy allow the bank to continue very high levels of fossil financing, including: 

* Providing $31.4 billion in finance to fossil fuels between the signing of the Paris Agreement and the end of 2020, 
* Increasing funding for companies expanding the scale of the fossil fuel industry by almost 420% from $579 million in 2016 to $3 billion in 2020, and
* Providing $3 billion in finance to companies expanding oil and gas in 2021, a 24% increase on its 2016-2019 average.



Market Forces and the Friends Provident Foundation have filed a shareholder resolution for Standard Chartered’s May Annual General Meeting. [The resolution](https://marketforces.org.uk/news/standard-chartered-shareholders-challenge-bank-to-live-up-to-net-zero-promise-on-fossil-fuels/) calls on the bank to live up to its ‘Net Zero by 2050’ pledge by following the International Energy Agency’s ‘Net Zero by 2050’ pathway.



[➔ Find out more](https://marketforces.org.uk/news/half-of-standard-chartereds-fossil-fuel-finance-not-covered-by-climate-targets-as-bank-releases-annual-report/)



Photograph was taken by Stephen Chung of Fridays for Future activists taking action outside Standard Chartered Bank in London, UK calling for the bank to stop funding fossil fuels and climate chaos.

Market Forces and the Friends Provident Foundation have filed a shareholder resolution calling on the bank to live up to its ‘Net Zero by 2050’ pledge.

Call on Standard Chartered to align net zero ambition with reality

In November 2021, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) faced a first-of-a-kind [complaint](https://www.mightyearth.org/wp-content/uploads/Final-SEC-JICA-Complaint-Narrative-11-23-212.pdf) to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The complainants claim that JICA stated its bond issued on US markets was coal-free, when in fact, proceeds will likely flow to coal-fired power stations in Bangladesh.



“JICA included this clause in its bond prospectus to convince investors concerned about the devastating climate impacts of coal to purchase the bond,” said Yuki Tanabe, Program Director, JACSES. “The agency can’t be allowed to get away with such flagrant greenwashing.”



Japan’s overseas development agency issued a US dollar bond in April 2021, explicitly stating in its prospectus that JICA “will not knowingly allocate any proceeds from the sale of the bonds to activities related to coal-fired power generation.” 



However, the complaint points to reports indicating that JICA will continue to fund coal power generation projects in Bangladesh and Indonesia, and to JICA’s own financial statements which suggest that the bonds will be used, at least in part, to fund new coal power projects.



[➔ For more information, read here](https://www.mightyearth.org/2021/11/24/jica-faces-us-securities-complaint-over-allegations-of-misleading-investors-on-coal/)

JACSES and other Japanese organizations file a complaint to SEC on JICA’s bond issuance.

JICA faces US Securities complaint for ‘misleading’ investors on coal

**It’s time we escalate to the top dogs: the CEOs and Directors of the biggest banks and investors who are financing Adani’s catastrophic coal expansion.** 

With the AGM around the corner Adani is counting on a day of good publicity to secure the extra cash needed for its coal expansion plans. Gautam Adani will say anything to convince the world he’s going green.

But our research reveals the urgent truth and we need your help to get it in front of investors: plans to expand and build 17 coal mines across Asia-Pacific.

**[So will you take 5 minutes to send a letter to the CEOs of Blackrock, Vanguard and PIMCO, telling them to stick by their words and get out of Adani?](https://actions.sumofus.org/a/divest-from-adani/?ak_proof=1&akid=.11638641.pkyc60&rd=1&source=fwd&t=9)** 

### More information

[](https://www.adanienterprises.com/-/media/Project/Enterprises/Investors/Investor-Downloads/Investors-Presentation/AEL-Business-Presentation.pdf)[Adani Enterprises- Business Presentation](https://www.adanienterprises.com/-/media/Project/Enterprises/Investors/Investor-Downloads/Investors-Presentation/AEL-Business-Presentation.pdf)

[](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-22/pimco-rules-out-future-investment-in-adani-ports-on-coal-link?sref=gPAG2MJ8)[Adani fined for ‘Gross environmental mismanagement’](https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/ngt-imposes-52-crore-penalty-on-adani-upcl-for-environmental-pollution-in-coastal-karnataka/article65486921.ece)\
The Hindu. 02 June 2022.

[Pimco Rules Out Future Adani Ports Investment on Coal Link](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-22/pimco-rules-out-future-investment-in-adani-ports-on-coal-link?sref=gPAG2MJ8) \
Bloomberg. 22 February 2021.

[Investment Stewardship](https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/dam/corp/advocate/investment-stewardship/pdf/policies-and-reports/inv_stew_2021_annual_report.pdf) \
Vanguard. 31 December 2021.

[BlackRock opposed re-election of 800 company directors in Q3 - report](https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/blackrock-opposed-re-election-800-company-directors-q3-report-2021-10-21/) \
Reuters. 21 October 2021.

[Gautam Adani](https://twitter.com/gautam_adani/status/1401064378938519555) \
Twitter. 5 June 2021.

SumOfUs and Toxic Bonds Initiative calls on Blackrock, Vanguard and PIMCO to divest from the Adani Group's bonds and shares.